A Philosopher Looks at Friendship
Published on 18. July 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-009-25554-7 (ISBN)
Description
What is it to be a friend? What does the role of friend involve, and why? How do the obligations and prerogatives associated with that role follow on from it, and how might they mesh, or clash, with our other duties and privileges? Philosophy often treats friendship as something systematic, serious, and earnest, and much philosophical thought has gone into how 'friendship' can formally be defined. How indeed can friendship be good for us if it doesn't fit into a philosopher's neat, systematising theory of the good? For Sophie Grace Chappell, friendship is neither systematic nor earnest, yet is certainly one of the greatest goods of life. Drawing on well-known examples from popular culture, and examining these alongside recent philosophical, political, social, and theological debates, Chappell demystifies and redefines friendship as a highly untidy and many-sided good, and certainly also as one of the most central goods of human experience.
Reviews / Votes
'A Philosopher Looks at Friendship is a thorough yet accessible work that seamlessly blends insights of philosophy, literature, film, and even Chappell's own poetry, while providing a realist corrective to philosophy's traditionally idealistic tendencies in appraising friendship. For that, it deserves the attention of those interested in friendship and the philosophy thereof, whether one is encountering the topic for the first time or, like an old, loyal friend, finds oneself revisiting it again.' Michaela Manson, Notre Dame Philosophical ReviewsMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
225 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-25554-7 (9781009255547)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sophie Grace Chappell is Professor of Philosophy at The Open University. Her philosophy books include Ethics and Experience, Knowing What to Do, Epiphanies, and Trans Figured. She is also a published poet (Songs For Winter Rain, 2021).
Content
Contents; Acknowledgements; Prelude: eighteen aphorisms; 1. Three friendships, and lots of questions; 2. Philosophers of friendship: an apology; 3. Why I don't start with a formal definition of friendship; 4. Examples of friendship; 5. Beginning the natural history of friendship; 6. Deepening the natural history of friendship; 7. Being with others; 8. Lewis's Four Loves-and Nygren's two; 9. Aristotle's three kinds of Philia-and Aristotle's will; 10. Friendship, love, and second-personality; 11. Friendship as an unemphatic good; 12. Bertrand Russell and his over-emphatic 'German' friend; 13. Sensitivity to tacit knowledge; 14. Innocence; 15. Moralism; 16. Roles and spontaneity; 17. The benefits of friendship; 18. Eighteen quick questions and eighteen quick answers; Notes; References; Index.